Close Enough to Feel
by Ann Pendragon
Summary: He felt close enough to her to feel... Future shipper fic w/ a side of song fic.


**Disclaimer:** Haven and its characters are not my own, but it's nice meeting them.

**Authors Note: **It 's early in the show, but I felt the urge to explore the world of Haven. More precisely, the relationship (or possible relationship) between Audrey and Nathan. I think they, like the show, have possibilities.

This bit is placed a year down the road. Audrey did stay and her relationship with the town and Nate has grown. And I am writing under my assumption that there is more to Nathan than just his inability to feel pain.

BTW, the song is Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls. I thought it was a good fit for Nate.

**Warning:** Cliché but sweet relationship development device used. ;-D And barely edited.

**Close Enough to Feel**

by Ann Pendragon

Was it odd to feel your heart ache a little, while watching the object of your affection take down a man double her size, while in heels and in the middle of a Lobster Fest celebration? Maybe it felt odd to a man who wasn't supposed to feel.

"Earth to Nate! Could ya help me get this guy into the back?"

"Sorry Parker." Nathan quickly pushed from the front door to pull the hall door to lockup, and then grabbed for their fairly inebriated prisoners other elbow. "I'm thinking you tired Shamus out."

Audrey rolled her eyes and gave a passed out Shamus one last nudge into the first cell they came to. Nathan could not disguise his pride or smirk.

"I'm thinking it's the keg of brew he consumed before wrecking the buffet table that's doing the trick." Audrey clinked the door shut and began an attempt at straitening her ponytail turned birds nest. "Ouch—why did I even try dressing up tonight? Some sort of Havenesque disaster was bound to happen…"

Audrey brushed past her partner, still fiddling with her hair. Nathan felt his fingers itch to help her unwind the ribbon that held her golden stands at bay. But as always, fought himself and refrained from the action. She had-still looked beautiful tonight. Of course he would have thought her beautiful in a pair of fuzzy boots and a plaid shirt.

"Well, at least it wasn't someone with abnormal abilities this time…" Nathan leaned against Audreys desk and smiled a quiet smile. It was nice dealing with a prisoner that wasn't spitting lightning or turning folks into stone.

"Yeah, I have plenty of that already in my life." Audrey huffed, finally getting her hair free. Nathan felt his heart hurt a little and his smile fade. "Oh—no Nate, I didn't mean you—I mean I meant…"

"It's okay, Parker." Nathan put on one of his best unaffected smirks and looked down at his shoes. "I know."

And he did know. Aside from the first time she asked him about his condition, and even after she had learned about 'the rest' of him, she never once made him feel like a freak or any less a man. If anything, Audrey was the one person in this world who made him feel normal and the one person he wished that he **could** feel…

_And I'd give up forever to touch you  
Cause I know that you feel me somehow  
You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be  
And I don't want to go home right now_

Audrey leaned against the desk beside him and a silence fell between the partners. The sounds from the festival in full swing drifted through the dimly lit office and surrounded them.

"I think every guy, from 18 to 82 danced with you tonight. You may have raised some green eyed monsters amongst Havens female population." He refrained from mentioning Duke, her dance partner before Shamus tore up the pie table, but he thought about it. That smiling jackal was never too far from Nate's mind when it concerned Audrey.

"Oh, I don't think so." Nate was rewarded with a self-deprecating eye roll and a blush. "I'm not much for dancing, but your Dad kinda gave me orders to get out and socialize with the natives—being that I am one now." Audrey smiled. "He also said something about already having one stick-in-the-mud deputy…"

Two months at the Motel drifted into six months at Rita's B&B and a permanent position on the Haven PD. Audrey had stayed, as Nathan predicted, and he and his father could not have been more pleased. And just four months ago the ex-FBI agent became the proud owner of her own yellow paint and clapboard abode. A fixer-upper Nathan took to fixing on his days off. It's what partners did, right?

"Besides, I didn't think someone was counting my dance partners." Audrey elbowed Nate's arm and he tensed. He turned to meet his partner's bright teasing stare.

"I'm just happy to see you having fun."

His words were steady and earnest and very much Nate. But he regretted saying them after the light in Audrey's eyes dimmed and faded. It's what he feared most when being so close to her. That one day he would tell her the truth about how he felt and he'd lose her smiles. Over the last year, those smiles had become the warmth of the sun to him. It was something he refused to give up.

Nathan quickly turned away from Audrey questioning eyes and another uncomfortable silence followed.

"You know you should try it sometime…fun." Audrey's voice was low, but meant to be heard. "Last time I heard, you don't need all your senses for that."

Nathan's brows drew down. He wasn't sure if he should be annoyed or affected by her words, but he wasn't surprised. The fact she did accept him also meant she wouldn't walk on egg shells around him. It frustrated and pleased him to no end, just like Audrey.

"Now folks, this is our last dance for the evening, so grab your gal…" Gabe Teagues, one half of the Teagues brothers, voice boomed from the speakers out in the square and faded into the first cords of the last song of the night.

_And I'd give up forever to touch you_  
_Cause I know that you feel me somehow…_

Nate carefully stood from the desk and faced his partner, meeting her surprised stare. And then he did something that even surprised him. He reached out to her.

"Then dance with me, Parker."

Slowly—cautiously, he felt the press of her hand against his palm and wrapped his long fingers around hers. Moving backwards, he walked them to the center of the station house floor.

_You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be_  
_And I don't want to go home right now_

Falling into step didn't come easy. Both wanted to lead. But after a few steps of give and take, the partners gave into a smooth sway in and out of the rooms shadows and across the floor.

_And all I can taste is this moment_  
_And all I can breathe is your life_  
_Cause sooner or later it's over_  
_I just don't want to miss you tonight_

He could not feel the heat from her skin, but he could smell how it warmed her perfume and it surrounded him. He did not feel the pain from the one and only step she placed on his foot, but he felt her body bump into and stay against his own. If he wanted to keep how he felt about her a secret, this was the worst possible way. But right now he was caring less and less.

_And I don't want the world to see me_  
_Cause I don't think that they'd understand_  
_When everything's made to be broken_  
_I just want you to know who I am_

"You're not a bad dancer, Wournos. Just when I thought I've figured you out." Nathan could picture a smirk on Audrey turned face and it warmed him down deep. She was trying to lighten the mood they were threatening to set.

"I think you know me better than you think Parker." And she did. He didn't have to hide with Audrey, its what not telling her how much she meant to him all the more difficult. Because she saw him and not the dulled armor he walked around in. She supported him while still kicking him in the pants day after day. And each day, Audrey brought took him a little further out of his comfort zone—his self imposed isolation, and made him feel every bit 'a real boy'.

_And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming_  
_Or the moment of truth in your lies_  
_When everything seems like the movies_  
_Yeah you bleed just to know your alive_

"Nate, I just want you to be happy."

Audrey had stopped dancing. Nathan looked down to find his now serious looking partner gazing up.

'_I don't deserve her.'_

_And I don't want the world to see me_  
_Cause I don't think that they'd understand_  
_When everything's made to be broken_  
_I just want you to know who I am_

"I am right now."

"Nathan?"

"Audrey…"

The moment hung in the breath warmed air between them.

"Audrey, I…"

"So ya kissing her or what, Boy?" Chief Wournos shuffled in past the bewildered and embarrassed partners, both of whom had jumped from the others personal space like magnets with like polarities. The old man snorted and smirked at the pair before entering his office. "If not, the Riley boys are causing a stir behind the bandstand. So get to it!"

The Chief watched his son and his sons partner/crush exchange a few rambling words and embarrassed smiles, before leaving the station house together. His son always one step behind her, following along like a love sick pup—like a man with feelings...

The elder Wournos shook his head and snorted.

The Parker girl staying had been good for Haven, and he had to admit, for his son. He saw it in his son's cool stoic eyes the day Nate walked into the office and found the Parker girl hadn't left after that first case. The boy was in love with her, that was a fact. And after what the Chief witnessed tonight, odds were the girl was falling too.

"About frickin time…"


End file.
